One Day, Three Birthdays

February 1st is a big day for birthdays in our family. It is a birthday for not one, not two, but three people. So happy birthday to these three awesome people... (in order by length of time in my life)

Kerry - Kerry is my one and only sister & sibling. I've known her since she was born & my very first memory is of feeding her a bottle when she first came home from the hospital. I have tons of wonderful memories of times spent playing together. She is a very smart, very hard working woman. She loves her family & friends tons and has an awesome heart. I'm proud to call her my sister. She'll be moving to California later this year. I'll miss her a lot, but I'm also excited to see how her life will take shape out there. Happy birthday & love you, Kerry!

Joel - I've known Joel for almost 14 years now. He's not only my husband, but my best friend & the person who knows me better than anyone else. He's a total goof sometimes (which I love), and can be very competitive (he's rubbed off on me some). He loves his family fiercely, and is a fabulous husband and father. He constantly amazes me with his ability to teach himself new things & just the vast amount of knowledge he carries around in that head of his. He's also a gifted photographer and has an excellent eye for design. Happy Birthday, Joel. I love ya!

Nathananel - I met Nathanael shortly after Joel & I started dating. I remember being blown away by how much they looked alike. They were the first set of twins I'd ever really known & I thought it was pretty cool. Nathanael is hard working and dedicated. He is also excellent with words & has written some really great poetry. He's the brother I didn't have growing up and now the uncle to my kids. Happy birthday, Natty! Love ya too!

Brave Girl

Emily broke her arm at school last week. She tripped over someone in line & fell on it just right. I got the call to come pick her up & had no idea how bad it might be. She was so sad looking when I first saw her - sitting on the edge of one of the beds in the nurse's office holding her arm and crying. It broke my heart. I told her we were going to take her to the doctor and get her arm feeling better, so off we went. She grimaced and cried a bit on the way in the car anytime we had a little bump - not a good sign, I knew. The x-ray reveled that she had broken both bones in the lower half of her right arm clean through. Her arm was braced & we were sent downtown to the hospital to have the orthopedist make the call on exactly what was needed.

When I told her that she was going to get a cast on & the nurse told her it could be pink she was beyond excited. It helped to have something positive to focus on during the long wait before her arm was set & we could go home. During the whole thing she was so brave. She didn't really cry after her initial tears when I first picked her up. She listened to everything that was explained to her & knew that she was going to be well cared for. When they came to take her from the room in the ER up to the surgery center to set her arm she laughed and giggled because she got to take a ride on a bed all the way. And, as the nurse helped her into our van after it was all over she even told her, "thank you for helping me."

Being back at the hospital in many of the same places we'd been in before in her stays for her seizures it brought back memories of her back then too. She was a brave little one. One of her stays the doctor thought her seizures might have been triggered by low blood sugar, so for the duration of our stay, two times a day, someone would come in and have to prick her finger to take a blood sample. She got to where she recognized the people who came to do this & would just hold her hand out for them when they came in & even smile at them. She would do the same for the nurses who would come in to take her vitals - she'd hold up her gown so they could listen to her heart as soon as they came in.

She amazed me then & did so again with this. She's a brave girl and I'm proud to be her momma.

Here's a photo of her just after she had been freed from her 72 hour stay on the couch. We had to elevate her arm above her heart, day & night, to keep it from swelling up. She was so happy when we told her she could get up that she cried. This is her victory "I made it!" pose.

She so hated her sling when she first woke up after having her arm set & seeing that it covered up her pretty pink cast that I told her I'd add some jewels for her. Here she's modeling her blinged out sling with pride.
She received this cookie bouquet from super sweet Mrs. Monica & Mr. Andrew. Again, it made her so happy she teared up. She also received many phone calls from people checking up on her & a very sweet card from Mrs. Cheryl, our kids minister at church. Mrs. Janie also brought us an amazing home cooked meal. We all felt very loved & it made us very happy to see so many people loving on our girl too.

Imaginary Play

Katherine LOVES her big sister's kitchen. Any chance she gets she will scoot on her little bottom to Emily's room & play in her kitchen. I like to sneak around the corner and watch her without her knowing I'm there. She will pour things into the little toy cups and stir with the little spoons. She'll even taste her imaginary creations. It is so cute and so sweet. She was doing it this morning, so I had to get a quick photo to share.

Little Chef

Jonathan loves to help me in the kitchen. He's a real little chef and very helpful too. He is really good at stirring things thoroughly and loves to chop up veggies for me with his kid knife (after I've done most of the work). One day I told him to smell what we were cooking & instead of just taking a whiff, he leaned forward slightly & wafted the odor to his nose with his hand. He'd seen this demonstrated on one of his favorite movies, Ratatouille (about a mouse that discovers he is a chef at heart). This is a photo of him chopping up some peppers and onions for a King Ranch casserole. He asked for the sunglasses to help keep his eyes from hurting from the onions & the candle is a trick I learned from Martha Stewart for the same purpose.

Christmas Eve Eve

Another Christmas Eve Eve has been successfully celebrated. This year's movie was Prancer. I still remember seeing it in the theater back when I was a little girl. Kinda different seeing it on this side of the parent/child relationship. The kids were crazy excited all day & once the air mattress was inflated this evening they were pretty much uncontainable in the excitement department. What makes me equally as happy is how excited Joel now gets about our little family tradition. I must also mention that Joel made some really, really good hot chocolate. His secret: a little butter & sugar mixed in. Now off to sleep & cinnamon rolls in the morning! Then Christmas Eve at Nana's, Christmas morning here, and finally Christmas day at Grandma & Grandpa's. Then what comes next....hmmmmm...my birthday! It's a 4 day celebration-a-thon.

Singing in Church

The kids sang in church this past Sunday. They sang Joy to the World & O Come Let Us Adore Him. Emily was so excited & kept asking me if it was time for her to go up & sing that morning. Here is a super cute picture of her in action. (Thanks Cheryl for sharing the picture!)

Gingerbread Cookie Houses

I won a cute house shaped cookie cutter at a Bunco night I went to last summer. I saved it to use to make gingerbread cookie houses with. I like the idea of making actual gingerbread houses, but they tend to be more fun in my mind than in reality, so I thought making a cookie version would involve less frustration & more fun. Add frosting & a variety of sprinkles to choose from and you've got some pretty yummy looking cookies! We had a good time just sitting around the kitchen table and having some creative, messy fun.

Here's a photo of us displaying the favorite cookie we each made.

And this is our token silly face photo. I think it's kinda funny that everyone but me stuck out their tongues.